- Review of 25 Years of Women’s Charter
[Women’s Parliament, South Africa] Herstory was made in the all-knowing halls of the South African Women’s Parliament on Thursday 29 August when women from all over South Africa took over the National Assembly and were addressed as Honourable Members as they debated gender-based violence and celebrated the Women’s Charter.
Cape Town-headquartered NPO Embrace Dignity was present with members of the KWANELE Movement for survivors of the system of prostitution. Embrace Dignity, the KWANELE Movement, and Men AGAINST Prostitution & Trafficking of Women and FOR the Equality Law (MAPTOW) are calling on all South Africans to recognise prostitution as a prime form of gender-based violence.
Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, Embrace Dignity Founder and Executive Director, who is calling on the Women’s Parliament to adopt the Equality Law to abolish the oppressive system of prostitution, says:
“We would like to thank those who have continued to offer their active support to those pushed to the margins of society. Such individuals give them hope and belief in self-liberation. I am honoured to walk alongside such people.”
Yesterday’s proceedings represented a review of 25 years of the Women’s Charter adopted by the Women’s National Coalition in 1994.
Gender-based violence, notably against prostituted women, makes headlines daily in South Africa. Embrace Dignity is optimistic that the tide could change in favour of millions of prostituted women, girls, boys, men, and transgender individuals if the organisation’s presence at yesterday’s event yields dividends.
Embrace Dignity’s purpose is to use their presence at not least the Women’s Parliament to mobilize Parliament and the public to rally behind the abolition of the harmful and exploitative system of prostitution that objectifies women, undermines gender equality, and perpetuates sex trafficking and patriarchy.
Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge adds:
“Given that twenty-five long years have passed since the Women’s Charter for Effective Equality was passed, this Thursday’s event comes not one moment too soon. Our team looks forward to what is inevitably likely to include a robust debate on the elephant in the room: the decriminalising of prostitution.”
The main theme for Thursday’s proceedings was that of a “Twenty-Five Year Review of the Women’s Charter for Effective Equality.” The sub-theme is “Gender and Institutionalism: Towards Strengthening the National Gender Machinery as a response to addressing Gender-Based Violence in South Africa.”
Under the Economy Clause of the Charter (Article Three), Embrace Dignity addressed the following statement in the Charter:
“Health and Safety for commercial sex workers and their clients are needed. Prostitution should be decriminalised.”
Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge comments:
“Embrace Dignity has no problem with the first part of this statement, except the use of the language, in calling the violent and exploitative prostitution system ‘sex work,’ a term coined by the sex work lobby to normalise what is in fact the oppression of mainly women. It is the second sentence which calls for prostitution to be decriminalised that poses a big problem for us. The call for decriminalising the violent and exploitative system of prostitution is ill-informed and compounds the problem by vastly increasing the extent of prostitution and its related ills.”
Embrace Dignity, with support from Kwanele – a movement for survivors of the system of prostitution – engaged and presented an alternative to the polarised positions of complete criminalisation (the current system in South Africa) and total decriminalisation (called for by Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce and its allies).
Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge explains:
“We are calling for partial decriminalisation or the Equality Law, also known as the Swedish, Nordic, or Sex Purchase Law. This is not a compromise between the two but a creative alternative third way which addresses the health, harms, and violence against women of the system of prostitution and promotes gender equality.”
The Equality Law is a coherent feminist human rights approach to addressing the complexity of the system of prostitution that was pioneered in Sweden in 1999 and taken forward in Norway (2009), Iceland (2009), Canada (2014), Northern Ireland (2015), France (2016), Ireland (2017), and Israel (2018).
Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge states:
“It is strange that the Women’s Charter would call for the decriminalisation of prostitution, considering that the Charter also calls for gender equality as well as security and integrity of the person. The system of prostitution is inherently violent and it undermines gender equality. The purpose and success of the Equality Law has been to promote gender equality.”
“Embrace Dignity stands with survivors and says no to decriminalizing pimps and sex buyers,” she adds.
Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge continues:
“The South African Law Reform Commission rejected total decriminalisation of the sex trade in its recommendations for law reform in South Africa, favouring instead the Equality Model as one of the options for South Africa to consider. The Equality Model Law is the only coherent strategy for addressing the oppressive system of prostitution and sex trafficking.”
Key aspects of the Equality Model Law include the following:
- All aspects of criminality are removed from the prostituted people;
- Resources are provided for people to exit prostitution;
- Resources are provided for public education on the harms in order to address the supply;
- Those who exploit others through prostitution are criminalized in order to end the demand. The purchase of sex is penalised. Brothel-keeping, pimping, and profiteering from prostitution are criminalized.
Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge concludes:
“With the unacceptably high levels of men’s violence against women, South Africa could be the first African country to pass the Equality Law. My experience of working with survivors of the system of prostitution has convinced me that South African policymakers and the public should adopt the Equality Law.”
Follow the Twitter handle @embrace_dignity or the Facebook page Embrace Dignity. Follow the following hashtags:
#AbolishProstitutionNow
#ListenToSurvivors
#Kwanele
#EmbraceDignity
#ArrestBrothelOwners
#ArrestSexBuyers
#ShutDownAllTheBrothels
#WeAreNotForSale
#ProstitutionIsOppression
#JusticeForSiamLee
#ProstitutionIsNotWork
Embrace Dignity is a prominent voice within Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution (CAP International: http://www.cap-international.org), a new and fast-growing abolitionist coalition of almost 30 frontline organisations opposed to the system of prostitution.
For further information on Embrace Dignity, KWANELE, and the Equality Model, visit the website www.embracedignity.co.za.
Victims of prostitution can contact KWANELE on telephone +27 (0)87 095 3086 or e-mail info@embracedignity.co.za.